Reuters
When acquisitive Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky set his eyes earlier this year on one of Britain's most iconic companies, the Royal Mail, he chose BNP Paribas along with two Wall Street giants to advise him. The 3.57 billion pound ($4.63 billion) takeover of Royal Mail's owner still needs UK government approval, but the mandate shows the French bank's ambition to become a player in the fiercely competitive City market dominated by local and U.S. "bulge bracket" investment banks. To accomplish that, the eurozone's biggest bank by assets has been beefing up its M&A teams and expanding the ranks of its corporate broking clients.